The REF is a significant driver of research excellence across the UK. It provides accountability for public investment in research and informs the allocation of around £2bn of block-grant research funding each year. It also creates a strong incentive for universities to focus on high-quality research with tangible benefits for society and the economy.

Assessment is conducted via disciplinary expert peer review and the results give a quality rating to research produced by an institution. Lancaster’s results from the last exercise, REF2021, are available online and confirmed our strong position as a research-intensive university producing world-quality research.

The next exercise will be submitted in 2027 with assessment and results in 2028, as such it will be known as REF2028. The assessment elements will be slightly expanded from REF2021 and are as follows:

• People, Culture and Environment (25% weighting). An expansion of the previous the environment element to include an assessment of research culture. Evidence will be collected at both institutional and disciplinary level.
• Contribution to Knowledge and Understanding (50% weighting). Assessment will continue to be largely based on submitted outputs but will also consider broader contributions to the advancement of the discipline.
• Engagement and Impact (25% weighting). Submissions will consist of both impact case studies and an accompanying statement to evidence engagement and impact activity beyond case studies.

REF2028 seeks to recognise and reward a wide range of impact-enabling activities as well as case studies that demonstrate impactful research defined as ’the effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life, beyond academia’.

Research, Impact and Engagement are frequently intertwined. Engagement can lead to academic impact (I.e. citations, influence on academic discipline) and support dissemination (to potential research users or adopters), but to achieve ‘real world’ impact as measured by exercises like REF2028, evidence is required that substantiates how the research has had an effect or initiated a change or benefit to an organisation, individual or group. For example, academic involvement in Eden Project Morecambe (a civil engagement project to regenerate Morecambe) presents opportunities for engagement (inputting into curriculum development, work in schools etc.) but to generate impact will require evidence that (for example) those activities have influenced Eden Project Morecambe or local schools to initiate a change to their practice or policy.

We have a dedicated e-learning module, developed nationally with a group of Universities and Epigeum (part of Oxford University Press) titled ‘Research Impact: Creating Meaning and Value.’ A series of guides from the <Impact Team> further explain how research impact can be embedded into the research lifecycle, starting at the research bid stage. Go to the <section> to view the guides.